War and Peace - The Original Classic Edition. Leo Tolstoy

of Vaska Denisov, and his whole short sturdy figure with the sinewy hairy hand and stumpy fingers in which he held the hilt of his naked saber, looked just as it usually did, especially toward evening when he had emptied his second bottle; he was only redder than usual. With his shaggy head thrown back like birds when they drink, pressing his spurs mercilessly

       into the sides of his good horse, Bedouin, and sitting as though falling backwards in the saddle, he galloped to the other flank of the squadron and shouted in a hoarse voice to the men to look to their pistols. He rode up to Kirsten. The staff captain on his broad-backed, steady mare came at a walk to meet him. His face with its long mustache was serious as always, only his eyes were brighter than usual.

       "Well, what about it?" said he to Denisov. "It won't come to a fight. You'll see--we shall retire."

       "The devil only knows what they're about!" muttered Denisov. "Ah, Wostov," he cried noticing the cadet's bright face, "you've got it at last."

       And he smiled approvingly, evidently pleased with the cadet. Rostov felt perfectly happy. Just then the commander appeared on the bridge. Denisov galloped up to him.

       "Your excellency! Let us attack them! I'll dwive them off."

       "Attack indeed!" said the colonel in a bored voice, puckering up his face as if driving off a troublesome fly. "And why are you stopping here? Don't you see the skirmishers are retreating? Lead the squadron back."

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       The squadron crossed the bridge and drew out of range of fire without having lost a single man. The second squadron that had

       been in the front line followed them across and the last Cossacks quitted the farther side of the river.

       The two Pavlograd squadrons, having crossed the bridge, retired up the hill one after the other. Their colonel, Karl Bogdanich

       Schubert, came up to Denisov's squadron and rode at a footpace not far from Rostov, without taking any notice of him although

       they were now meeting for the first time since their encounter concerning Telyanin. Rostov, feeling that he was at the front and in the power of a man toward whom he now admitted that he had been to blame, did not lift his eyes from the colonel's athletic back, his nape covered with light hair, and his red neck. It seemed to Rostov that Bogdanich was only pretending not to notice him, and that

       his whole aim now was to test the cadet's courage, so he drew himself up and looked around him merrily; then it seemed to him that Bogdanich rode so near in order to show him his courage. Next he thought that his enemy would send the squadron on a desperate attack just to punish him--Rostov. Then he imagined how, after the attack, Bogdanich would come up to him as he lay wounded and would magnanimously extend the hand of reconciliation.

       The high-shouldered figure of Zherkov, familiar to the Pavlograds as he had but recently left their regiment, rode up to the colonel. After his dismissal from headquarters Zherkov had not remained in the regiment, saying he was not such a fool as to slave at the front when he could get more rewards by doing nothing on the staff, and had succeeded in attaching himself as an orderly officer to Prince Bagration. He now came to his former chief with an order from the commander of the rear guard.

       "Colonel," he said, addressing Rostov's enemy with an air of gloomy gravity and glancing round at his comrades, "there is an order

       to stop and fire the bridge."

       "An order to who?" asked the colonel morosely.

       "I don't myself know 'to who,'" replied the cornet in a serious tone, "but the prince told me to 'go and tell the colonel that the hus-

       sars must return quickly and fire the bridge.'"

       Zherkov was followed by an officer of the suite who rode up to the colonel of hussars with the same order. After him the stout Nesvitski came galloping up on a Cossack horse that could scarcely carry his weight.

       "How's this, Colonel?" he shouted as he approached. "I told you to fire the bridge, and now someone has gone and blundered; they

       are all beside themselves over there and one can't make anything out." The colonel deliberately stopped the regiment and turned to Nesvitski.

       "You spoke to me of inflammable material," said he, "but you said nothing about firing it."

       "But, my dear sir," said Nesvitski as he drew up, taking off his cap and smoothing his hair wet with perspiration with his plump

       hand, "wasn't I telling you to fire the bridge, when inflammable material had been put in position?"

       "I am not your 'dear sir,' Mr. Staff Officer, and you did not tell me to burn the bridge! I know the service, and it is my habit orders

       strictly to obey. You said the bridge would be burned, but who would it burn, I could not know by the holy spirit!"

       "Ah, that's always the way!" said Nesvitski with a wave of the hand. "How did you get here?" said he, turning to Zherkov. "On the same business. But you are damp! Let me wring you out!"

       "You were saying, Mr. Staff Officer..." continued the colonel in an offended tone.

       "Colonel," interrupted the officer of the suite, "You must be quick or the enemy will bring up his guns to use grapeshot." The colonel looked silently at the officer of the suite, at the stout staff officer, and at Zherkov, and he frowned.

       "I will the bridge fire," he said in a solemn tone as if to announce that in spite of all the unpleasantness he had to endure he would

       still do the right thing.

       Striking his horse with his long muscular legs as if it were to blame for everything, the colonel moved forward and ordered the sec-ond squadron, that in which Rostov was serving under Denisov, to return to the bridge.

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       "There, it's just as I thought," said Rostov to himself. "He wishes to test me!" His heart contracted and the blood rushed to his face. "Let him see whether I am a coward!" he thought.

       Again on all the bright faces of the squadron the serious expression appeared that they had worn when under fire. Rostov watched his enemy, the colonel, closely--to find in his face confirmation of his own conjecture, but the colonel did not once glance at Ros-tov, and looked as he always did when at the front, solemn and stern. Then came the word of command.

       "Look sharp! Look sharp!" several voices repeated around him.

       Their sabers catching in the bridles and their spurs jingling, the hussars hastily dismounted, not knowing what they were to do. The men were crossing themselves. Rostov no longer looked at the colonel, he had no time. He was afraid of falling behind the hussars,

       so much afraid that his heart stood still. His hand trembled as he gave his horse into an orderly's charge, and he felt the blood rush to his heart with a thud. Denisov rode past him, leaning back and shouting something. Rostov saw nothing but the hussars running all around him, their spurs catching and their sabers clattering.

       "Stretchers!" shouted someone behind him.

       Rostov did not think what this call for stretchers meant; he ran on, trying only to be ahead of the others; but just at the bridge, not looking at the ground, he came on some sticky, trodden mud, stumbled, and fell on his hands. The others outstripped him.

       "At boss zides, Captain," he heard the voice of the colonel, who, having ridden ahead, had pulled up his horse near the bridge, with a

       triumphant, cheerful face.

       Rostov wiping his muddy hands on his breeches looked at his enemy and was about to run on, thinking that the farther he went to

       the front the better. But Bogdanich, without looking at or recognizing Rostov, shouted to him:

       "Who's that running on the middle of the bridge? To the right! Come back, Cadet!" he cried angrily; and turning to Denisov, who, showing off his courage, had ridden on to the planks of the bridge:

       "Why run risks, Captain? You should dismount," he said.

       "Oh, every bullet has its billet," answered Vaska Denisov, turning in his saddle.

       Meanwhile Nesvitski, Zherkov, and the officer of the